Very bright Kreutz-family Sungrazing comet destroyed by the Sun

A very bright Kreutz-family Sungrazing comet was destroyed by the Sun on May 10, 2021. The object entered the view of the SOHO spacecraft’s LASCO C3 instrument early May 8 and C2 on May 10.

The object appeared to be tens of meters in diameter, which is fairly substantial by SOHO standards.

“It’s really rare that we see saturation spikes this big on incoming Sungrazers,” said Dr. Karl Battams of USNRL, manager of NASA’s citizen science Sungrazer Project.

“Just four hours later, there was nothing but a dusty rubble pile remaining,” Battams said.

“Shortly thereafter, these dusty remains will have rapidly been stripped down to their individual constituent atoms and mostly blown away in the solar wind.”

Featured image credit: NASA/ESA LASCO C2